As already reported, at the “Beach Pro Challenge” stage in Jūrmala, eight Latvian duos did not pass the qualification, Anete Namiķe/Varvara Brailko took 19th place, Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Jānis Šmēdiņš ranked ninth, and Tīna Graudiņa/Anastasija Samoilova won bronze.
Jurmala gold was awarded to Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes/Brandi Wilkerson and Australians Thomas Hodges/Zackery Schubert.
Home tournament bronze medalists Graudiņa/Samoilova earned 720 points for the ranking (900 points had to be defended). Thus, in the latest “entry” ranking, Latvian ladies actually lost 180 points, due to which they slipped from 15th to 18th place, not counting the disbanded teams. In the meantime, the owners of the ninth place in Jurmala, Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Jānis Šmēdins, earned 460 points (they had to defend 400) – they needed to enter the quarterfinals in order to overtake Mārtinas Pļaviņas and Mihailas Samoilovs in the “entry” ranking.
Graudiņa/Samoilova is the only European women’s “top” team that has not played in the “Beach Pro” elite stage qualification (until now they always started immediately in the main tournament or did not participate), not including the “liquidated” World Tour at the end of 2021. On June 2, the Ostrava elite failed to get out of the group, so it became clear that the next elite stage will have to start with qualification.
Graudiņa and Samoilova should be seeded third or fourth in the Gstaad elite qualification, which will take place on July 5, but due to the loss of the mentioned 180 points, they are currently seeded seventh.
The 720 points earned in Jurmala will be useful in the Olympic selection ranking, where Graudiņa and Samoilova currently occupy 10th place.
Latvian ladies in the LTV7 Sports studio
Women’s “entry” rank
1.Duda/Ana Patricia (Brazil)33002.Clancy/Artacho (Australia)31003.Hughes/Chen (USA)28604.Huberli/Brunner (Switzerland)27605.Nassa/Cloth (USA)27606.Humana-Paredes/Wilkerson (Canada) )25607.Stama/Shona (Netherlands)25608.Kanona/Sponsila (USA)2420… 18.Graudiņa/Samoilova (Latvia)1940
Latvian male duets have recently lost positions in the world “entry” ranking. Last season, Aleksandrs Samoilovs/Jānis Šmēdiņš won the “Challenge” bronze twice, but this season they burned their points. Currently, in the world “entry” ranking, they are Latvia’s second best duo (980 points) after Mārtiņš Pļaviņš/Mihailas Samoilov (1000), who improved their rating at the end of 2022 and reached 960 points, when many leading teams had already finished the season.
Graudiņa/Samoilova and Samoilovs/Šmēdiņš are in the application to compete in the European “King of the Court” final tournament, which will start on June 27 in Luxembourg.
Resources used:
Men’s “entry” ranking – fivb.com
Women’s “entry” ranking – fivb.com
